Blind eye turned to illegally parked Mayor

Posted on Jan 31, 2012

Eagle-eyed South London Press lensman Simon Turnbull captured this snap of the Mayor of Southwark’s limousine parked on double yellow lines in the borough this week.

The sharp-eyed snapper was on an assignment outside the council’s headquarters in London Bridge when he spotted the shining civic chariot parked in nearby Barnham Street. Most vehicles would have received a ticket in minutes but it seems a wooden Mayoral plaque displayed in the window of the gleaming black Mercedes as mayor Councillor Lorraine Lauder attended a nearby function was enough to keep traffic wardens at bay on Tuesday afternoon.

More than 122,000 motorists who received parking tickets in the borough last year were not so lucky. Southwark’s leader, Cllr Peter John, abolished parking privileges for councillors granted under the previous Liberal Democrat and Conservative coalition.

Speaking in May, 2010, he said: “There is no reason why councillors should not pay parking fees just like everyone else.”

But, when the South London Press asked why the Labour mayor’s limo had been parked on double yellows, a council’s spokeswoman said: “The Madam Mayor was on an official engagement representing the borough at the Holocaust Memorial Day commemorations at City Hall.”